2 Corinthians 1:3-11 - Thanksgiving For God's Compassion And Comfort

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of tender mercies and the God of all comfort, ⁴ who comforts me in all my distress, so that I am able to comfort people who are in any distress by the comfort with which I myself am comforted by God. ⁵ For as the sufferings of Christ are abundant in my case, so my comfort is also abundant through Christ. ⁶ If I am in distress, it is in the interests of your comfort and salvation; if I am comforted, it is in the interests of your comfort, which is effective as it nerves you to endure the same sufferings as I suffer myself. ⁷ Hence my hope for you is well-founded, since I know that as you share the sufferings you share the comfort also.

⁸ Now I would like you to know about the distress which befell me in Asia, brothers. I was crushed, crushed far more than I could stand, so much so that I despaired even of life; ⁹ in fact I told myself it was the sentence of death. But that was to make me rely not on myself but on the God who raises the dead; ¹⁰ he rescued me from so terrible a death, he rescues still, and I rely upon him for the hope that he will continue to rescue me. ¹¹ Let me have your cooperation in prayer, so that many a soul may render thanks to him on my behalf for the boon which many have been the means of him bestowing on myself.